WASHINGTON — We'll soon find out if Beto O'Rourke is for real — maybe as soon as his first 72 hours of being a presidential candidate now that he's joined the 2020 race.

What made O'Rourke a star in 2018, and what gives him promise in 2020, was his ability to raise money ($80 million for a Senate candidate) and to draw big crowds.

So can he come close to the nearly $6 million Bernie Sanders raked in during his first 24 hours as a 2020 candidate? Can he exceed or double the $1.5 million Kamala Harris raised in her first day?

As for the crowds, O'Rourke will spend the next three days in Iowa, hitting Burlington and Muscatine (today), Mount Pleasant and Cedar Rapids (on Friday) and Waterloo and Dubuque (Saturday).

He's the first major 2020 candidate to immediately head to Iowa after announcing a bid. (Kamala Harris launched in Oakland before holding a CNN town hall in Iowa; Bernie Sanders held rallies in Brooklyn and Chicago before hitting the Hawkeye State.)

Do the crowds show up in Iowa? What about his first official rally in El Paso on March 30 - does it come close to Harris' 20,000-plus in Oakland, or Bernie's 10,000-plus in Brooklyn and Chicago?

No Democrat in the 2020 field is as boom-or-bust as Beto. He's either going to take off, justifying the Oprah appearance and Annie Leibovitz photo spread. Or he's going to fall flat, proving that his 2.5-point loss in Texas (compared with Hillary's 9-point defeat there in 2016 or Obama's 16-point loss) was lightning in a bottle.

The question we have: Does five become 10? Per Thorp and Sotomayor, five additional GOP senators are undecided or haven't announced their decisions. They include Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo.

If the resolution gets a simple majority, it will head to President Trump's desk for the first veto of his presidency.

Stone cold

Roger Stone today heads to court, where he'll face "U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing his case and appears to be running out of patience with him," the L.A. Times writes.

Why he's in trouble:

"He first angered the judge last month with an inflammatory Instagram post that included a crosshairs symbol next to her head. In response, Jackson tightened her gag order and barred Stone from saying almost anything in public about the case."

"But Stone is in hot water again because he failed to tell Jackson about the imminent publication of a book called "The Myth of Russian Collusion," an updated version of a tome that was first released shortly after the 2016 election."

2020 Vision: Bernie's hoping for a better reception in South Carolina

In 2016, Bernie Sanders lost the South Carolina primary by a whopping 47 points.

And so if he's going to win the 2020 Dem nomination, he's going to need to do better than that in the Palmetto State, where he campaigns today.

On the campaign trail: In addition to Sanders stumping in South Carolina at 7:00 pm ET and Beto in Iowa, Cory Booker (at 11:00 am ET) and Kamala Harris (at noon ET) address an economic-security conference in DC.

Just 31 percent of Florida voters overall say they definitely WILL support him, including 75 percent of Republicans, 36 percent of seniors, 26 percent of women, 21 percent of independents and 21 percent of Hispanics.

In a state that Trump won by just more than a single percentage point, the president is significantly underwater with Florida voters, with a 40 percent favorable / 52 percent unfavorable rating.

The good news for Republicans: Most of the Democratic presidential candidates remain largely unknown in the Sunshine State, underwater on favorability, or both.